As we move towards what is hopefully a tentative restart of the economy post lockdown, there are patently wide ranging issues and concerns that are impacting today on the short to medium term viability of the Engineering and Manufacturing sector in Scotland. It is of course difficult to consider how your business, and more widely the sector will be equipped to deal with challenges further down the line. The skills shortage that has such an impact on the sector in recent years has been driven, in large part, by the reduction in opportunity for apprenticeships during the last financial crisis in 2008 and beyond. With fewer apprenticeships being offered due to financial constraints, the talent pipeline was constricted with consequences felt now.

One acute impact of our current situation is potential redundancies of apprentices who are partly through their training, and this is recognised by Scottish Engineering, and by Government bodies such as Skills Development Scotland. Their existing ‘Adopt an Apprentice’ scheme, provides employers the chance to offer employment to part completed Apprentices who have lost opportunities elsewhere. Currently this scheme has two tiers of financial incentive to support the adoption of an apprentice, with a higher rate for Oil and Gas sector companies. This two level element of the incentive is currently being reviewed in light of COVID-19 impact to ensure a balanced approach across sectors.

This incentive will support the ongoing costs of employing the apprenticeship, but with the benefit of the duration of the apprenticeship being lesser given that they are likely to be part qualified. You may also qualify for the normal financial support for employing apprentices.
Full details of the scheme are available here.

Scottish Engineering would like to offer all of our member companies who may be either reducing their apprentice numbers, or who are actively recruiting or would like to consider the opportunity of adopting apprentices to use our resources to try to find and create matches where that’s appropriate. If you are in either position, please contact Dermot Cole at Scottish Engineering ([email protected]) who will pool any requests for support and try to match apprentices with employers.